Aon extends employee PMI scheme to cover gender dysphoria

Aon has added gender dysphoria to its private healthcare scheme for its employees.

The move follows Aon's development of one of the UK market's first gender dysphoria coverage solutions in 2016, later adopted by Lloyds Banking Group - the firm is the first UK-based company to offer gender dysphoria to its employees through a PMI scheme.

Significant rise

This comes at a time when the UK is seeing a siginificant rise in the number of people experiencing gender dysphoria, with NHS referrals for the condition having increased by around 240% in the last five years.

According to Aon, gender dysphoria is classified as 'a diagnosable condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there is a mismatch between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity, and feels uncomfortable with the gender they were assigned at birth'.

The scheme is administered by Bupa and includes consultations, counselling and mental health support as well as surgical procedures that are deemed medically necessary by approved consultants operating in the UK.

Diversity 

David Battle, CEO of employee benefits UK, Aon said: "Diversity is the foundation on which we have built our world-class organisation. Given our commitment to an inclusive culture, we have chosen to introduce gender dysphoria cover within our own benefits package. This is a significant change to our scheme and enables members to access different levels of professional treatment, which could include counselling and support services through to surgical procedures.

"Gender dysphoria is a recognised medical condition, yet it is excluded from many employers' private healthcare schemes. We believe this is wholly inappropriate. The late James Kenrick, who served as our Head of Health Care Consulting Services, was a pioneer in bringing gender dysphoria cover to our clients and developed one of the market's first coverage solutions. We will continue to build on this legacy and are proud to be leading the industry in providing such inclusive benefits for Aon colleagues in the UK."

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• Topics
• PMI
• Employee Benefits
• gender dysphoria
• dysphoria
• Aon
• legal recognition of non-binary gender
• Health & Medical & Pharma
• Lloyds Banking Group
• David Battle
• Diversity
• Bupa
• Trans